Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia—including India, after which the ocean is named—on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, by Antarctica). Indian Ocean in Days of Infamy The Indian Ocean had been a minor battle ground, compared with the major threater in the Atlantic, of raiders and U-Boats as the Kriegsmarine attempted to cut Britain's lifeline with her empire during World War II. When Japan entered the war on 7 December 1941, she quickly drove the English out of her Asian colonies and forced the Royal Navy all the way back to India. After this, the Japanese Navy pursued them into the Indian Ocean, attacking the Royal Navy at Ceylon and defeating them, forcing them all the way back to the African continent. After this victory, the Indian Ocean temporarily belonged to the Japanese. However, they were never able to follow up from this victory and as the war progressed and the fighting in Europe turned in favour of the British, they returned in force, and began to re-take the initiative against the Japanese in the Indian Ocean. Indian Ocean in Southern Victory The Indian Ocean had been virtually controlled by the British Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries. After Britain's defeat in the Great War, the Empire found it had a new rival in the form of Japan when she took control of the Dutch East Indies during the economic crisis of the early 1920s. In spite of this new threat, Britain still remained the number one power in the ocean. During the Second Great War, Britain's dominance over the ocean was threatened when Japan turned on her, taking her Asian colonies and threatening Australia. Indian Ocean in Worldwar The Indian Ocean had been an British lake up until World War II. By 1942, the ocean was the battle ground of raiders and U-Boats of both the Kriegsmarine, and the Japanese Navy, as they attempted to cut Britain's lifeline with her empire. When the Race landed in June 1942, the ocean was pretty much ignored due to the Race's tendency to not regard boats as a threat. As it became clear that they were, the Race began attacking shipping in the ocean. Throughout the war, the Royal Navy attempted to keep the shipping lanes from England through the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean open, in order to keep their armies in both the Middle East and Western India supplied. In 1944, the war turned against the Empire and the Race drove the British out of both the Middle East, India, and Australia, effectively putting the whole of the Indian Ocean under their control. Following the peace, the Indian Ocean was frequently patrolled by ballistic missile submarines of the three major human powers - Germany, the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1962, when the Colonization Fleet arrived, a US Submarine fired its nuclear missiles from the Indian Ocean, destroying a number of Race Colonization ships in orbit. Due to the Race controlling the ocean, the culprit wasn't discovered until much later. When tensions between Germany and the Race resulted in the Race German War of 1965, the Kriegsmarine's ballistic missile sub fleet stationed in the region launched attacks against Arabia and, to a lesser extent, Australia. Category:Days of Infamy Category:Southern Victory Category:Worldwar Category:Oceans